The government must compel building owners or managers to be honest with residents about fire safety defects.
It is not right that information about a property’s safety should be withheld from residents, yet Inside Housing has heard several worrying stories about residents only learning of the dangers to their buildings when the waking watch began patrolling the corridors.
There is currently no law forcing building owners to release information about the safety of the property to those who live in it – that must change.
In Barking, for example, residents were not told of a fire risk assessment that identified a “significant hazard” from the timber deck balconies. Unaware of the risk, it was a barbecue on one of these balconies that triggered the terrifying blaze.
Originally posted in Inside Housing on 27/09/20 by Peter Apps